IT’S ALL IN YOUR HEAD:
REVIEW: of I Heard There Was a Secret Chord: Music as Medicine by Daniel J. Levitin (Reviewed by Karl Straub, December 18, 2024, Washington Independent Review of Books)
The big story throughout the book is that different elements of music are processed by different circuits in our brains, and the separate pieces of information are collated and then transferred to new circuits in order to process more complex aspects of the music. Details about pitch, duration, and loudness are stored early on, and the cooperating chain of brain departments eventually turns to complicated issues like the shape of a melody, the sonic character of instruments, and the emotional connections for the listener.
Few human activities compare to listening to music — although hikes in the wild and dancing are distant siblings — with its epic journey of interoffice memos linking both a network of small circuits and the often-isolated two hemispheres of the brain. It’s this sweeping process that leads to medicinal and therapeutic benefits; listening to music can open up alternate neural pathways to substitute for burned-out or dormant ones, and it can also rejuvenate paths exhausted by stress.
Among the book’s other fascinating takeaways: Playing music or singing decreases levels of the stress hormone cortisol, leaving us more relaxed. Children get attached to inanely catchy songs like “Baby Shark” because the repetition of musical information is building the brain pathways they’ll need to enjoy the greater benefits of music later on. Because adults already built their own pathways in childhood, these songs often drive them crazy. (Take heart, Mom and Dad: They really are good for the kids.)
For most music-therapy applications (stress/pain relief, mood alteration, and treating complex neurological dysfunction), the best results happen when the listener picks music they already love. (This means Zell Miller was onto something with his Charlie Daniels theory.) But it’s also true that increased understanding of how music works helps lead to improvements in brain health, even for non-virtuosos. In other words, musical comfort food and the musical equivalent of high fiber are both good for you.
